In case you have not heard, Artscroll is joining the digital revolution. Perhaps Artscroll’s greatest contribution to date is the Schottenstein Talmud. Their version of the Talmud is comprehensive and useful for beginners and scholars alike. It has likely opened the doors of Talmud study to more people than any other edition of the Talmud in the history of the Talmud.

Now Artscroll is taking the Talmud to the next level. As mentioned previously, the iPad is a magical Torah study device. It lends itself to Torah study more than any other piece of technology. You can hold it in your hand, you navigate with your fingers, pop-ups are the perfect method for providing additional information beyond the text that is so key to Talmud study. Artscroll is bringing the Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud to the iPad.

The features are extensive and the video below outlines many of the key features. It’s a really impressive feature set.

iTalmud did a wonderful job with their limited resources. See: iTalmud – iPad Edition. They did not have access to the copyrighted material and research that went into the Schottenstein edition. But iTalmud pales in comparison to what Artscroll can offer. Of course I expect this to be reflected in the price, iTalmud is $40. Each volume of the printed Shottenstein Talmud is $40 and some tractates are several volumes long. If ebook prices are any indication, the Artscroll digital edition will be priced similarly to the printed edition. That is a lot of money.

A source tells me that there will be various options to gain access to the app. You can buy a daf, a tractate or the entire Shas. There will also be a rental model that will allow users to follow along with the Daf Yomi giving access to each particular daf for a limited time. I think the price will be one of the more interesting story lines as the app moves from development to the marketplace.

The iPad will be the first digital edition of the Shottenstein but my source also tells me that Android and desktop version will eventually follow.

Artscroll has hired the best Jewish app developer out there in RustyBrick to write the software and you can be confident that the final product will be elegant, simple to use and very powerful. RustyBrick also works hard to constantly update their apps to bring more features to the end users. I am happy for my friends at RustyBrick.

Artscroll is doing this because they think it will be a good business decision. I am happy that they are ready to embrace the digital era. Now we just need to get our yeshivos and rabbinic leaders to follow the lead of the community.

Here is a severely overdramatic video about the upcoming app. Whatever happened to understated, humble marketing? Yeesh. This thing is way out of control. (I also don’t love using copyrighted music for a product that so covets its own copyrights.) But shout out to my friend Jeff Cohn who makes a cameo at 3:00!

Related posts:

1. iTalmud – iPad Edition | App Review
2. New Koren English Talmud
3. iTalmud English Edition: Review
4. Intro to Talmud 2
5. Rabbi J.H. Hertz’s Epic Introduction to the Talmud (with a little controversy mixed in)

We did a family trip to the California Science Center at Exposition Park in Los Angeles yesterday. The museum is nice, albeit a bit outdated. Such is the fate of any museum that has exhibits of the latest and greatest in technology. Cell phones were a new obscure invention according to the exhibit on technology. Even better was the section describing how phone lines are not fast enough for video conferencing. Hehe.

Anyway, the highlights of the museum are the Hubble 3D IMAX movie and the temporary exhibit called 1001 Inventions. The IMAX was incredible. It told the story of the Hubble telescope and some of its most incredible discoveries. It was really powerful to see the beauty and seeming infinite scope of outer space. The 3D images of galaxies and galaxy clusters trillions of light years away is awe-inspiring. The 3D glasses, 9 story screen and excellent sound system make you feel like you are traveling through space. Simply remarkable.

1001 Inventions is an international project that demonstrates some of the technological marvels and advances contributed by the Arab world in the Middle Ages. In a time that is stereotyped as the Dark Ages in Europe, much “light” was found in Arab countries. Hundreds of ideas and inventions are part of the exhibit. It is modern and compelling and I really enjoyed it.

Socially, the exhibit attracted many Muslims and I found pleasure and inspiration exploring the exhibit side by side with devout Muslims.

Politically, I can anticipate that there are those who will object to the exhibit simply because it portrays Islam in a favorable light. It has become en vogue for social conservatives and progressives to battle over the imagery of Islam in America. Some people find it harmful that Islam be portrayed as peaceful or beneficial to society. Others bend over backwards to ignore Islamic extremism and oppression in Arab countries. I don’t think either of those approaches are wise or prudent, but that is neither here nor there.

When examining the exhibit through those lenses I think the exhibit was fair. It only spoke to technology and medicine and the scholarship within the Arab word during the Middle Ages. I think this is an message for Arabs and non-Arabs in 2012. It is important for non-Arabs because it reminds them (or informs them) that there is a rich history of wisdom and forward thinking in the Arab world. We need to be thankful for their contributions to society. It is important for Arabs because in its current iteration, it seems as thought the Arab community is mired in backwards thinking. Technology and progress are not priorities. Thinking and scholarship are not priorities either. Advances are not coming from the Arab world at the same rate as they come from Asia, Europe or America. It would be great if this exhibit inspired a return to scholarship and innovation that contributes to the good of the world community. With such a rich history, I would imagine reinvigorating efforts for progress would be natural.

The second take-away from the exhibit that I had was that it tried to show that relations between members of different religions were not always contentious. The best proof of this was the only non-Muslim or Arab with a prominent place in the exhibit. That would be the Maimonides display:

I found the description of Maimonides fair and positive. It might be a bit understated though. I think Maimonides was even more of an iconoclast than he is given credit for in the panel. A video accompanied this panel and went a bit more in depth than the panel. In general, I was very pleased that Maimonides was included in the exhibit.

I am sure that some will find nefarious intentions in his inclusions. Something along the lines of the “Muslims are stealing Maimonides” or something like that. But I think that is misguided and wrong. The text clearly says that he was a Jewish doctor. Most importantly, the text notes that he helped people of all faiths. Indeed, this is one of the legacies of Maimonides.

The exhibit is worth seeing if you are in LA or one of the other locations. If you have seen it, I am interested in your impressions of the exhibit.

Link: 1001 Inventions

Related posts:

1. Wonderful Article on the “Three Faiths” Exhibit at the New York Public Library
2. Exhibit: Albanian Muslims Saved 2000 Jews During the Holocaust
3. My Visit to the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center
4. High Holidays Services / Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in Venice California / Santa Monica / Los Angeles with Pacific Jewish Center at The Shul on the Beach
5. California Dreaming No Longer?

Way back in 2009, I did a review of iTalmud English for the iPhone. See: iTalmud English Edition: Review

A few months ago we got an iPad and I could not wait to try iTalmud – iPad Edition. Torah learning is much easier on a bigger screen and the navigation through an iPad app is less crowded than on an iPhone. I’ve been testing the iTalmud – iPad Edition and it with recent updates and the bigger screen the iPad app is one of the best apps I have used on the iPad. Period.

I figured to give you all a real taste of what using iTalmud – iPad Edition is like I would give you a walkthrough with photos.

Before we begin, I will just say that if you have an iPad and have any interest in studying Talmud, this is the absolutely best way to do it. The Torah is timeless and when technology can be leveraged to make the experience more accessible, exciting and convenient, it speaks to the eternal nature of the Torah and its people. When you think about it, it can be quite inspiring.

Here we go:

I always begin studying a page of the Talmud with the traditional page view.  iTalmud provides clear PDFs of every folio of the Talmud. It is a straight PDF with no iOS magic. Functional and perhaps enough to justify spending $40. Imagine having the entire Talmud accessible on an iPad!

To change pages, one taps the book icon on the top of the page and using the iOS selection wheel can turn to any Tractate and any page in that Tractate in an instant. It takes about 2 seconds to download each PDF over wifi. It does not feel like you are “waiting” when you switch pages. Here I have switched from Shabbos to Brachos in an instant. In real life that would mean going to a bookshelf and replacing one overly large tome with another. Amazing.

If you want to be able to read folio pages when offline you can download PDFs of every Daf View page and save them for later in the Download Manager. There is no charge to keep these on your iPad. Additionally, the app provides excellent audio classes for each page. These can also be downloaded and saved for later.

Let’s move on. Daf View is nice, but the other stuff is where we experience the real magic of iTalmud. I use landscape view for viewing the PDFs. It just seems more natural. But for the other modes I mostly use portrait view. (We will stick with landscape for now.) Switching modes is simple. Just tap the page icon on he bottom left. A menu pops up and you can select how you would like iTalmud to display text. Until now we have been using Daf View.

Now I’ve selected “Hebrew Text” and “Rashi”. As you can see, this view is just text without the traditional Daf format. But I have also selected Rashi and the commentary is displayed split-screen style on the left. The two columns are independent and can be scrolled on their own. So if Rashi is lower down on the page you can scroll the left side down but leave the right side where it is. This is great.

We also can select Tosfos and Tosfos will be displayed instead of Rashi. Everything else remains the same.

Another option is to have the English translation displayed. This translation is the Soncino translation with the Footnotes. If you tap a footnote and popup displays the text of the footnote.

I’ve switched the view to portrait. In this view, the secondary text, in this case Rashi, gets moved to the bottom of the screen. I have also tapped on the Daf Yomi shiurim menu. Here, we can see a list of local Daf Yomi classes and their locations. Languages are included so that you can find the class that best meets your needs. You can also enter an address and find  class near that address. Unfortunately, this feature did not work for me. The keyboard kept disappearing. I hope this is fixed in a future update.

Sometimes you want to go directly to a specific page. You can easily navigate to any page using the browse and search menu. The English Keyword search is also great. As I have beards on my mind (The Shave Heard ‘Round the World) I typed “beard” into the search and the results displayed everywhere the word beard occurs in the Talmud. This is a really super tool. Tapping a result sends you to that page. This is great, but could be better. The place on the page that the word occurs is not highlighted anywhere. This would not be so bad if there were a “search this page” option but iTalmud does not have that feature yet.

One of the coolest things in the iTalmud app is a $5 add-on. I bought it because it was useful to me and I think it is a great feature. To bring up the extras pop-up just tap on the Extras menu icon.

With Biblical References” add-on you can tap any verse from Scripture that is quoted in the Talmud and explore that verse. So just click buy and then it is automatically built into the app.

For example, I tapped a verse on Brachos 2a. Tapping the verse brings up a menu where you can choose which commentary should be displayed with the text of the verse from the Torah. I chose English. The verse is automatically highlighted and the commentary is inline.

I tried to select Rashi, but it was not working. That’s another kink that needs to be worked out. But the others work. Here is the Ramban on that verse.

And here is Ibn Ezra. It could not be simpler.

I also want to show you a full-screen view that removes the menus and just shows the text on the screen. This is the ideal method for studying. No distractions and it uses the maximum of the real estate. It would even better if iTalmud could do Airplay and be displayed on an external display. Maybe next version…

So there you have it. That’s how I use iTalmud English for iPad. I am sure many of you would use it differently. That’s part of the beauty of the app. It can be used your way.

I have one more suggestion for a future release (my father actually suggested it to me). It would be great if illustrations and models could be provided as well. The Talmud can be so well illuminated by diagrams and graphics. Some sections require illustrations. I hope a future release could provide pop-up graphics for these sections of the Talmud.

Other than that, search on the page and a couple of bugs iTalmud is one of the most complete iPad apps I have had the pleasure of using. I highly recommend the app and even more than the app, I recommend studying Talmud.

Purchase the app here: iTalmud – iPad Edition. Check out Crowded Road’s other apps and services on their website.

Disclaimer: Promotional consideration was provided by Crowded Road for the review of their iTalmud English for iPad app. I was given the app free of charge.

Related posts:

1. iTalmud English Edition: Review
2. Big News From Artscroll: The Talmud is Coming to iPad in Spectacular Fashion
3. The Joy is in the Anticipation: Thoughts On Waiting For The iPad
4. Some Note-Worthy Changes in the New Edition of the Bible
5. Apropos of Nothing (well… maybe something): Rabbi Julie Schonfeld Edition

An amazing photo series is grabbing the Internet’s attention.

The series depicts average people from all walks of life absorbed in their phones. They seem oblivious to their surroundings despite being photographed in some of the most spectacular spots in New York. The photos capture in living color the nature of phone focus. The photographs are so sharply focused on their subjects and the backgrounds are mostly out of focus that they subliminally tell the story of self focus.

The phenomena is widespread and I can’t pretend that I am not one who this may happen to from time to time.

Seeing the shots of these people makes me not want to be one of them anymore.

To me, the message of the series is that we should try to refocus on the beautiful real world while we can. Put the phone down for a few minutes. Enjoy the fresh air and sights, scenes and colors of our surroundings. (Almost) Nothing is that important. We need to try to pull ourselves out of the digital world as much as we can.

One minor quibble I have with the series is that title: Texters. Texting is one thing people do on their phones. But one can be just as busy and unaware by surfing the web, playing a game, reading blogs or whatever. Texting is a bit too limiting of a title for my taste.

Also, check out the Chasidic Jew on his decidedly non-kosher phone!

Embedding of the slideshow is disabled so check it out on Flickr: Joe Holmes

Link: NY Times Bits Blog

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2. Amazing Use of Amazing Technology
3. Some People Are Making Certain That The Typewriter Does Not Die
4. Fun Video of the Exodus Using Technology by Aish.com
5. The End of an Era: The Sony Cassette Walkman Takes Its Last Walk

Remember Watson?

The IBM supercomputer that was awesome at Jeopardy. I mocked the idea of spending that much money and energy on a computer that could beat humans at a game show. (see: Watch a Computer Beat the Best Humans at Jeopardy). The criticism was warranted because of course Watson wasn’t just built for Jeopardy.

Of course, I knew that. I still thought it was funny that such a big deal was made about a computer that was awesome at Jeopardy.

One commenter (Avraham Bronstein) quoted an article that indicated that Watson was being developed for health care.

The AP is reporting that they were present for a demonstration of Watson helping to diagnose a medical problem. It’s really a perfect fit for Watson. A human doctor can only remember so much in his or her puny human brain. Watson’s massive digital storage can “remember” almost infinite amounts of information. Watson is much better equipped to make a complex diagnosis than a doctor.

Watson will make suggestions to doctors and rank them by how likely they are to be correct. Working in tandem with human doctors will make a medical dream team.

In fact, not only will Watson “know” all the information that scientists, medical professionals have published, Watson will also know about personal medical anecdotes by reading blogs. I think that is the coolest thing ever. There are tons of personal blogs where people write about their medical conditions and of course no doctor could read them all or even parse out the valuable information. But Watson can.

Also, since Watson works with voice recognition technology, any doctor can use it. You don’t need to be trained to use Watson. You just talk.

Kudos to IBM for this amazing innovation. I hope that we will be seeing Watson in hospitals and doctor offices sometime soon. The AP is reporting it will be about two years before they will begin marketing Watson to the medical community.

I sure hope so.

Link: AP

Related posts:

1. Watch a Computer Beat the Best Humans at Jeopardy
2. Lost in Technology
3. In Defense of Christopher Hitchens, an Atheist in a Foxhole
4. The Shabbaton Choir is Amazing
5. Fun Video of the Exodus Using Technology by Aish.com

I read a fascinating article about an interesting phenomena in the NY Times.

Technology pervades our lives. Phones that have little computers inside them that can take lovely photos and videos, share them with the world, access the entire Internet and make a phone call live in our pockets. We have computers at home. We have computers at work. Many people use electronic devices to read books. (See: Orthodox Jews and E-Readers).

Some people feel like it has gone too far.

As a result, typewriters are surging in popularity. The unwieldy, noisy, with no delete button typewriters of the 40′s and 50′s. I am not that old, but when I was in 2nd grade I remember the school office secretary had a typewriter. But it was fancy and used a screen to show what you were typing, even had an automatic delete function and was not black metal. Those are not the popular typewriters. People want the old fashioned ones.

A really nice point is made in the article by a Ms. Kowalski:

“You type so much quicker than you can think on a computer,” Ms. Kowalski said. “On a typewriter, you have to think.”

Writing on a computer is like using a pencil. Typing on a typewriter is using pen, or perhaps more like chiseling into a stone. Because we can type faster than we write, sometimes we write things that are incorrect, or stupid. The same thing happens when we speak before we consider the weight of our words. It can be a great exercise in cognition to type without the luxury of delete. I had a half a thought to publish this post in typewriter style, that is, without deleting or modifying anything. It would have been incoherent. I can barely write one sentence without making a correction or two, or three.

But the message is clear. Sometimes we do need to slow down.

Another great lesson I learned from the typewriter enthusiasts is the need to focus. Just while writing this blog post, I have checked and replied to email, replied to a Twitter conversation and commented on a Facebook post. There is something about using a uni-tasker. A typewriter can only do one thing. It helps one to focus and I suppose that is a good thing too.

The last thing I take from this typewriter revival is a bit of nostalgia. Some of us have it, some of us don’t. But in orthodox Jewish life there is much nostalgia. One of the greatest areas of this nostalgia is in the area of Torah study. Old books are treasured and revered. Old printings of those books are treasured and revered. Most significantly, old ideas are treasured and revered.

Using a book to study Torah is the standard. Torah scholars pore over books with ink and paper every day. Many of those texts are available digitally. But the old fashioned way lives on. When no one in the world is reading books anymore, I am positive that Torah will still be studied from books and read during services from scrolls. That nostalgia is built into Judaism. We revere the ancient, we respect the past, we look back to our parents and grand parents with love and admiration and we integrate all that into our present and future.

Personally, I love old things. Maybe one day I will get myself a typewriter, but until then I will need to practice typing more effectively the first time around…

Link: NY Times

Meanwhile, laugh at this:

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IBM's Watson

Playing Jeopardy is a unique skill.

The answer is given, it is usually obscure, uses a pun or figure of speech and the contestant must come up with the correct question for the answer. It’s complicated. More complicated than playing chess. Computers have been playing and winning chess matches for years. It seems an impossible task to have a machine play, let alone win a game of jeopardy.

IBM has invented a computer named Watson. He is able to process Jeopardy answers that it “hears”, it is able to “think” about the answer, it is able to “buzz in” and it is able to speak the “question”. I find this very impressive. You will too. [Watch the video below.]

The interesting thing for me is that IBM spent all this time and money on a computer that can win a round of Jeopardy.

IBM has been running “Smarter Planet” commercials for a while. The ads follow a specific format. A smart person tells you about a worldwide problem like traffic, hunger or banking. They demonstrate how they are using IBM’s technology to “fix” the problem. They are great ads.

Inevitably, the really big problems and really big solutions using IBM technology are not in the United States. In fact the only “Smarter Planet” ad that I can recall that illustrates an American problem and solution is… Watson. I kid you not. We have hunger too. We have traffic too. We have plenty of issues that technology can help solve. But IBM chooses to focus on Game Shows, at least in their ads, more than real problems.

THAT is a real problem! Even if IBM is actually working on our local problems using technology, the only technology they choose to showcase is a game show playing computer?! Granted, it’s pretty cool. But it’s so useless in solving our major problems.

Are we Americans so self absorbed that we don’t care to see solutions to our big problems? I think so…

Anyway, enough doom and gloom. Enjoy the video. See the future… Watch Watson beat the best Jeopardy contestants in recent memory.

Link: Watson

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1. Amazing Use of Amazing Technology
2. Skinny Non-Humans (like Apple gadgets & Pepsi soda cans)
3. In The Atlantic: The Hassidim of the Consumer Electronics Show
4. Political Discrimination
5. Kosher Navigation

Photo: The Atlantic

Anyone who knows about technology, knows that the latest and greatest gadgets are all in Las Vegas right now for the consumer electronics show. The Atlantic is covering the show and found something they deemed newsworthy that is not directly related to “Consumer Electronics”.

There are chasidic Jews at the show.

Chasidic Judaism is often misdefined as “Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. It’s not. It is simply a way of life that focuses on the spirituality of the world and comes with a certain dress code. The men keep their beards, wear long coats and fur hats on holy days. But within chasidic Judaism, some are more “pious” than others. Being a chasidic Jew does not mean that one is more religious or more holy. It is a way of Jewish life that provides opportunities for religiousness or holiness, just like any other.

At CES, the chasidic Jews are not developing new products. That would take an expertise that nearly all chasidic Jews do not have (ie heavy training in engineering and technology). Instead they are there as the classic Jewish middlemen. Using their connections and (hopefully) trustworthiness to develop relationships that can get them good prices on electronic goods and sell them to the marketplace at a fair price.

I think it is a common error to assume that chasidic Jews do not have regular jobs. True, there are scarcely any chasidic Jews who are professionals. College and secondary education are shunned. But nearly all chasidic Jews work. They are small business owners, they work in the services industry and they wheel and deal as middlemen.

I am proud that chasidic Jews are at CES. One of the men at the show was asked by the Atlantic if being chasidic impacts his business. He replied: “People look at us as very honest people”. That’s more important than any degree or faux religousness.

That is called making a kiddush Hashem.

Link: The Atlantic

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2. Ex-Hasids Get a Reality Show: This is SO not a good idea
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4. The Good Wife: Unorthodox, From a Rabbi / Law Student Perspective
5. Frum Satire Show at Pacific Jewish Center Was Incredible

There is a social media tool found on Facebook, a site called Foursquare and a site called Gowalla. It’s called “Checking In”. The idea is simple, whenever you go somewhere significant which you would like to share with others, you “check in” on one of those sites and anyone who “follows you” can see where you’ve checked in. You use your smartphone and its built in GPS to check in.

I don’t participate in this effort, but I know plenty of people who do.

You can choose anywhere in the world to check in but only when you there. (I know this is terrible english, I just cannot think of how to write this properly. Sorry.) Some business do give-aways to people who check in and Foursquare keeps track of all check ins at a particular location and the person with the most check ins is the mayor.

A Jewish girl is the mayor of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. I kid you not.

The Temple Mount is one of the most hotly contested plots of land in the world, if not the most contested piece of property. And on Foursquare the dispute has been settled.

Obviously, her competition for the mayorship is slim. I doubt most of the folks at Al Aqsa Mosque know about Foursquare. But I bet if they find out about it, they will try to get the mayorship for themselves.

In the real world, this accomplishment means absolutely nothing. Yet, it’s news…

Check out the article in The New York Observer here: Disputed Territories: Nice Jewish Girl Claims Foursquare Mayorship of Temple Mount

The article mentions that orthodox Jews are prohibited from venturing to the Temple Mount. While most orthodox Jews follow this ruling, this is under dispute. Some rabbis do ascend the Temple Mount. Just thought I’d point that out.

Related posts:

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2. Lost in Technology
3. Onymous Blogging
4. The Zilberman Home: A Thriving Jewish Family in the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem
5. Messilas Yesharim 01/18/09

The Atlantic used the headline I would have used in their title so I was stuck with a lame headline…

In an article, semi-appropriately named People of the E-Book? Observant Jews Struggle With Sabbath in a Digital Age, Uri Friedman contemplates the future of e-readers in the hands of orthodox Jews. It’s only a semi-appropriate headline because I don’t think many orthodox Jews are actually struggling with this issue.

It’s not clear why this is an article worth writing. Orthodox Jews are a tiny segment of the population and do not participate in many rites of popular culture. For some reason, Friedman found this a subject worth writing on.

I have some comments on his article and some thoughts on e-readers as they pertain to orthodox Jews irrespective of the article.

First of all, I am impressed that Friedman knows that some prohibit electricity on Shabbos because of “boneh” (building), as you complete a circuit by “flipping the switch”. Nice job!

The article also draws an interesting parallel between the proliferation of electronic devices and the move to the suburbs in the 50′s that resulted in a weakening of Shabbos commitment when conservative and reform Jews began driving to Shul in Shabbos.

But something really bothered me. Friedman does a nice job of including thoughts on the subject by orthodox, conservative and reform Jews. What was disturbing is what can be inferred from their quotes.

The first orthodox fellow believes that someone will invent a workaround solution. Since orthodox Jews are so desperate for an Shabbos e-reader someone will surely invent one. Similar to a timed light, the Shabbos e-reader would turn pages at regular intervals. This idea is insane and will never work. (Do I need to explain why this is dumb? Have you ever read a book?) There is no excuse for mentioning this in a respectable article.

The conservative rabbi in the article expresses reservations about using e-readers on Shabbos because they distract from the beauty of Shabbos. This is a noble idea. Unfortunately, most conservative Jews I know, watch TV on Shabbos. An e-reader is not less of a “distraction” than TV.

But here is the rub. The orthodox Jew looks like a halachic obsessive who is willing to break the “spirit of Shabbos” via an automated e-reader device. The conservative Jew is more concerned about the spiritual parts of Shabbos and even if e-readers are permissible would be sad if they distracted from the “spirit of Shabbos”.

I wish the article had not given this impression.

It’s not really true. Orthodox Jews care about the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. That’s why orthodox Jews don’t leave their TVs on timers over Shabbos. Some orthodox Jews don’t use dish washers on timers for the same reason.

To portray the orthodox Jews as those who ignore the spirit of the law is unfair.

As to the issue raised in the article about e-readers and Shabbos. I have resisted buying an e-reader and e-books for a completely different reason.

Most of the books read in my home are from the library. They are free. We don’t pay $10 for books. Until there is an e-reader subscription where you can read all the books you want for a reasonable monthly fee I cannot imagine paying $200 to have the lucky fortune of buying books for $10 a piece. That is the real reason I am not buying an e-reader. It is true that I read a little more on Shabbos than other days but I read enough during the week that I would love to have an e-reader. I have a nice computer, a Wii, a PS3, an iPod, and iPhone and I only use those during the week too. Who cares?

E-readers are the future. But as long as there is a printing press and people own printers there is no need for orthodox Jews to compromise their commitment to halacha or the spirit of Shabbos.

However, if electricity becomes so ubiquitous that in order to avoid it on Shabbos, orthodox Jews would need to live like the Amish, it is possible that the halachic authorities will reconsider the original decision to consider use of electricity a violation of Shabbos. At that point anything is possible.

In the meantime, if you want to experience a taste of Shabbos with no e-readers, come to the Shul on the Beach where we read from a handwritten Torah scroll and pray from old fashioned books.

Related posts:

1. A Message for Orthodox Jews in the wake of Joel Alperson’s Op-Ed on Tikkun Olam
2. An Atheist Who Loves Orthodox Jews
3. Why Orthodox Jews Should Follow the Fight Between the Vatican and the LCWR
4. Orthodox Jews Are Not Sneetches
5. Circumcision Follow Up (or why circumcision is not barbaric for Orthodox Jews)

When I was a young lad, my dream gadget was the Sony Walkman. It was a portable (PORTABLE!) tape player with headphones so that you could listen to your OWN music. Kind of amazing when you think about it.

I remember my Walkman. It was black (pictured LEFT), even though I wanted the fancy WATERPROOF yellow Walkman, I had the black one. It’s coolest feature was that it would change sides of the tape without taking the tape out of the player, flipping it and reinserting the tape.

Aaaah, the memories. I wonder if I could find my Walkman somewhere in my parents’ house…

Anyway, the  Walkman was usurped by the Discman. I had one of those too. And now the Walkman brand has been resurrected as Sony’s Digital Music Player line. I had one of those too. It was a Walkman phone. I rarely used the music player on the phone, nevertheless, it was a Walkman Phone.

It has been 30 years since Sony began making the cassette Walkman and they have announced that they are pulling the plug, or rather they are taking out the batteries, from the cassette Walkman line.

Time marches on…

(Via CrunchGear: End Of An Era: Sony Stops Manufacturing Cassette Walkmans)

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3. The Jewish Music World Says Goodbye to Two Legends: Debbie Friedman and Moshe Yess
4. Lost in Technology
5. REVIEW: The Soul of Jewish Music Concert

Last night I saw an interested post on Gizmodo.com, a favorite technology blog of mine.

Google Maps has sattelite pictures of nearly the entire world. When you take pictures of everything, you’re going to catch some funny things.

Google has satelite pictures and “Street View” pictures which are (the ultimate stalking tool and) depict the view from the street. Most of the wacky Google Maps pictures are Street View pictures.

For a change, Gizmodo found a really cool satellite picture.

A crazy looking plane just above a residential street was spotted.

The street was Rose Avenue. The cross street was Lincoln Avenue. That is exactly where the Pacific Jewish Center Annex is located. Sure enough, the satellite photo of our annex has a crazy looking plane in the picture.

Original post and photo on Gizmodo: Google Maps Catches Airplane Cruising Down a California Street

(Click the photo to enlarge)

Related posts:

1. Pacific Jewish Center Featured on MSNBC.com
2. Beautiful Photos of Hoshana Rabbah at Pacific Jewish Center | The Shul on the Beach
3. KCET Departures Features Pacific Jewish Center
4. Become a Fan of Pacific Jewish Center on Facebook
5. Frum Satire Show at Pacific Jewish Center Was Incredible

KCET (the local PBS affiliate) has been working on a city-wide project. It is called Departures and it focuses on the people and places that make the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. For the last six weeks they have been working on Venice. Today they came to the Pacific Jewish Center Shul on the Beach to learn about us and to be included in their upcoming Venice piece.

It was a true honor and privilege to be a part of this worthwhile project. The production should be finished in February and I look forward to seeing that.

The camera crew shot some footage of our morning services and did two interviews. First, they interview Gary Dalin. Gary has been part of PJC since 1979 and provided great insight into the rich history of Pacific Jewish Center and the greater Venice Jewish community. He was eloquent and impressive in his interview and represented us very well. Great job Gary!

I was interviewed next. I hope I did okay. I myself have interviewed so many Jewish College student on camera and made those interviews into documentaries, so I know how hard it can be. (For two of my videos click here for JAM 2006 and click here for Chase Edler.) Among many topics, we talked about the juxtaposition of the historic quality of the Shul on the Beach to the future of outreach including this blog and my relative youth as a Rabbi. We also talked about the role the Shul plays in the boardwalk community, surrounded by the wild atmosphere of the boardwalk. It wasn’t too long, maybe a 35 minute interview in total, but we covered a lot of topics. Of course, there were some delinquents that felt the need to disturb us, that is just life on Venice Boardwalk…

I hope the final product reflects well on our special community and those who see it are inspired at least to check us out some time. I ended the interview with an open invitation to anyone who would like to see what we are all about and I extend that invitation to all of you reading this right now.

I also, want to thank Justin, Dan and Matt for including us in this project. I wish you much success in this endeavor and anything you do in the future.

Here are a couple pictures that Leslie Friedman took with her BlackBerry during the interview.

Related posts:

1. You’re Not Crazy Blogger Visits The Shul on the Beach
2. KCET Departures Features Pacific Jewish Center
3. That's What I Call Ambition
4. Venice Historical Society Visits Pacific Jewish Center at the Shul on the Beach
5. Purim Night! | Connections 3/9/09

While the blog was down a very interesting Op-Ed appeared in the New York Times.

A journalist had a discussion with a man who could explain how the financial industry collapsed last year in one sentence.

Intrigued, the journalist pressed the man to explain. The answer? Wall Street got too smart.

In the old days, the Wall Street guys were not the top of their class, they were the jocks and slackers.

But now, all the MIT brainiacs are going to Wall Street.

Huh? If they were so smart how did they mess the whole thing up?

They were too smart.

Briefly, they were so smart they realized they could leverage their assets to make money and they could explain it in a way that made sense to investors.

Read the NY Times column for the more expanded explanation.

The article also makes a statement about which industries smart people choose for their careers. For the last couple of decades the smart people have been choosing Wall Street. Working in finance is exciting, fun and can be lucrative. However, it is not productive.

Justice Scalia said the same thing about lawyers. So many lawyers are very bright, and they do help people and they help society, but they are not producing anything. Scalia said:

I mean there’d be a, you know, a defense or public defender from Podunk, you know, and this woman is really brilliant, you know. Why isn’t she out inventing the automobile or, you know, doing something productive for this society?

I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table and there have to be other people who are doing that. And I worry that we are devoting too many of our very best minds to this enterprise.

The point is that for too long, the greatest minds in our country have not pursued industry and instead work in fields that do not have long-term benefit to society.

I discussed the evils of such a system in this post called Yosef and the Economic Light of Wisdom and Kindness.

I agree with the man the jornalist spoke with and I agree with Justice Scalia. We need to somehow get our smart people in industry. When was the last time a U.S. carmaker made a car that really caught your eye or impressed you more than an import? We import clothes, we import technology and we import food.

Instead we should be producing the best cars, the nicest clothes, the greatest technology and the most food. But we are handicapped because our smart people don’t go into those industries.

We need to find a way to fix it.

Related posts:

1. Reputation Obsession: Taking Tov Shem M’Shemen Tov – A Good Name is Better Than Good Oil – to the Next Level
2. The Good Wife: Unorthodox, From a Rabbi / Law Student Perspective
3. Why Blogging Is Good
4. A Good Day for Sarah Palin
5. Super Bowl Ad Censorship: A Good Thing

Yesterday I flew from New York to Los Angeles. We got to the airport just under 3 hours before our flight. This is a direct result of missing a few flights in the last few years. We always err on the side of caution.

I stopped in a Hudson Books to peruse the available reading material. Prominently displayed was a new book by Ben Mezrich called “The Accidental Billionaires“. I am a big fan of Mezrich having read, Busting Vegas, Rigged and of course Bringing Down the House (I recommend all those books). I took a look at the book and discovered it was about the founding and founders of Facebook.

I bought the book.

And so should you.

Why?

The book is interesting, tells a compelling story and most of all offers fantastic insight into our world. Facebook transformed the way we interact with each other on the web and in real life.

Before Facebook, the web was mostly information that someone else put on the web for you to learn from. The genius of Facebook is that it gave everyone the opportunity to share their lives with their friends on the web. Facebook is a web platform that is the really the voice of the people. Facebook wrestled the web away from corporate content providers and gave the power of the web to you and me and our friends.

Prior to Facebook there was MySpace. MySpace was and continues to be a big advertisement for one’s brand, band, etc. It is not a relationship building platform. Facebook is a place to meet and befriend people. It is your real life, just online. Facebook took the interactions of our daily lives and transported them onto a web page. That is why Facebook is not only the largest online community, but is also the most popular photo sharing site on the web. People share their lives in a natural way on Facebook.

Twitter really took the Facebook lesson of sharing and community building and over-simplified it. Twitter has also become wildly successful because it builds community.

Understanding our highly interactive online world is important and this book really illuminates that reality.

The other thing that made the book powerful was the struggle the founders of Facebook encountered while attributed credit to the creator of Facebook.

See, Facebook wasn’t revolutionary. It was just social networking done the right way. Other folks had thought of similar sites and other sites were launched and they failed.

The tension over whose idea Facebook was is something that happens all the time in our modern world. People think of ideas or concepts at the same time as others. One of those parties may be successful with their version of the idea and the other version may fail. When the failing version owners realize they have not succeeded oftentimes they get angry, they file lawsuits, they yell and scream and make themselves look bad.

Much of the book is dedicated to appreciating this complex dynamic and it is a valuable lesson in modern fairness.

I recommend this book (click to purchase) to anyone wishing to gain insight and appreciation for our interactive, modern, web based universe. As well as people who just like reading a good book about a college geek who became the youngest billionaire in the history of America.

Related posts:

1. Rabbis and Facebook
2. Malcolm Gladwell Doesn’t Use Twitter or Facebook But He Is Pretty Sure They Are Useless
3. Become a Fan of Pacific Jewish Center on Facebook
4. Book Review | The Color of Water
5. Book Review | The Queen You Thought You Knew

A little while back I contributed a decent post to DovBear that generated an impressive response from legions of commenters on DovBear. The post was a comparison of anonymous vs. onymous blogging.

I argued that by blogging about important things anonymously, they are less effective and only perpetuate the near censorship of right-wing Orthodox Judaism. Some went on to call anonymous blogging cowardly.

In the discussion that ensued I conceded that quite possibly, better conversation can be had anonymously and I admitted that for a blog like DovBear, the unfortunate reality is that anonymity is the preferable choice.

Something left undiscussed was the reality that DovBear is not anonymous. Google, who hosts his blog, knows exactly who he is, where he lives and presumably, has access to all his email, searches and web history. Until a few days ago, one may have assumed that their information was safe with Google.

Not anymore.

A New York State Supreme Court ruled that Google was compelled to reveal the identity of a blogger using Google’s Blogger software. The blogger is question had posted defamatory comments about a fashion model that negatively affected her career. The model sued Google to uncloak the anonymous blogger and the court held that Google must comply.

Some may think I herald this as a victory for onymous blogging. Not so. If one is not comfortable blogging onymously his privacy must be respected. I urge people to choose to blog onymously, I am not on favor of mandating it and banning anonymous blogging.

The Bray of Fundie has an interesting post about his opinion on the ramifications of this ruling which is worth reading. Click here to go to to his excellent blog called HaMavdil.

(This is just one more reason to self host one’s blog. Technically the owner of a Blogger blog is Google and it is their information to share or withhold. A self hosted blog cannot be “outed” by Google as the blog owner is the rights holder to the information on the blog.)

But what of the courts decision? How does this affect the blogosphere? Some are calling it the “end of anonymous blogging”. That may very well be the case, but a new anonymous medium (twitter?) will crop up and still give voice to the anony-addicts out there. So really, the voice of the anonymous will not be quelled it will just need to move its home base.

The prospect of Google sharing our information is more worrisome than anything else. Everything we do is being recorded by Google. That can seem very scary.

Yet, when we reflect on this idea we can ask ourselves, is it so strange to us that our lives are being recorded by Google? Is it such a foreign concept that our every movement has meaning and does not disappear into the oblivion of infinite time and space?

Of course it is not. Our Rabbis teach us “V’chol ma’asecha b’sefer nichtavim”. All our actions are recorded in a “book”. Obviously, this cannot be a real, leather-bound volume published by Harper-Collins. I understsand this to mean that each of our actions has cosmic ramifications. Whenever we act, it affects us and the world is affected. None of our actions are meaningless that they would go “unrecorded”.

This is what Elul and the High Holidays are about. Realizing that our decisions and choices make real differences and hopefully adjusting our lives accordingly to make good and true choices.

The court decision in favor of the fashion model comes at a great time. We can take stock and learn a lesson about what it means for our lives to “recorded”; what it means to live life with the understanding that everything we do matters.

At some point we all will need to face our life’s choices. Let’s make the right choices.

Related posts:

1. Onymous Blogging
2. Jewish Blog Round-Up July 5th 2009 Edition
3. Authentic Judaism and Authentic Charity
4. Google Instant And The Lesson of Time
5. The Dead Sea Scrolls Are Alive Thanks to Google

Finding the perfect blog URL is an adventure. The choices are endless and one’s mood can affect one’s opinion tremendously, leading to potential buyer’s remorse.

As I talked on the phone with my blog consultant, Judd Magilnick, we searched for the perfect concept. Our ideas ranged from the ultra bland, finkblog.com to the ultra creative ifinkican.com. We were having a hard time agreeing and my family was nixing just about every suggestion.

Eventually, finkorswim.com was suggested. Of course, there were some detractors at first, but as we realized the deeper connotations of finkorswim.com its appropriateness became apparent.

A play on words from “Sink or Swim”, finkorswim.com reminds us that if we don’t swim, we will sink. In fact the Talmud teaches us that a father is obligated to teach his child to swim. This is a lesson in parenting. A father must provide his child with the tools necessary to navigate through life. Further, a teacher is compared to a father in Judaism and students are compared to children.

A Rabbi is a teacher. It is my job, as the Rabbi of the Pacific Jewish Center in Venice, to help provide the tools necessary to “swim” in the sea of life. When I speak at Pacific Jewish Center or when I teach a class at PJC I try to provide some of those tools that we can learn from Torah to help our lives. Many of those classes are available here on the blog.

Another way I try to do my job of helping folks swim through the sea of life is by providing perspective on social issues, news items, ethical dilemmas and anything else that floats through my mind. Reading my thoughts on various subjects and reading the thoughts of other readers can also provide tools for swimming through life. Many of those thoughts and ramblings can also be found on this blog.

Another idea that finkorswim.com represents is a direct invitation to all. When you got to the beach you have a choice. You can go a swim or surf, or sunbathe or walk the boardwalk. But other times, you can also “fink” and come into the magical walls of the Pacific Jewish Center and study the ancient wisdom of the Torah. One can learn, socialize and grow tremendously as a person in our quaint Shul. There is a special feeling inside the Shul that I know you will feel once you come inside.

So, next time you are on Venice Beach, don’t forget, you can “fink” or ‘”swim”, or you can do both!

Related posts:

1. KCET Visits PJC and Interviews Me
2. Onymous Blogging
3. Messilas Yesharim 12/28/08
4. Men (Learning) at Work
5. Great Shavuos Turnout Renders Previous Post Moot

One of my favorite gadget blogs ran a despicable headline for a post yesterday. Gizmodo is a great blog when it comes to getting information, reviews and opinions on the latest technology and gadgets. Unfortunately, yesterday they disgraced their reputation with a pretty offensive headline.

The headline garnered enough attention that they ultimately changed it to something less offensive.

There is a normal Orthodox Jewish couple who have a vacation home. Originally, the building did not have motion sensing lights but recently changed the system to a motion sensing system. On Shabbos the couple did not wish to be forced to walk in a hallway that would trigger the lights on. They requested the building swap the new system for the old one at their expense. The building refused. The couple sued.

Gizmodo posted the following headline: “Orthodox Couple Imprisoned By Superstition Blame Motion Sensing Light Instead”.

Proof:

Subsequently, the headline was changed to “Orthodox Jewish Couple Sues Over Motion Sensing Light“.

I posted the link on Facebook hoping to get some comments from my Facebook friends. I got a few interesting responses.

One commenter hit the two points that I want to discuss on this blog.

1 – The halachic ramifications of motion sensors and Shabbos for the Orthodox Jew.

2 – The reaction of a non-Jew to a halacha adherent Jew.

I do not want to get into a nitty gritty halachic discourse of motion sensors on Shabbos. Suffice to say, the issue is not black and white. On Shabbos one may not act in a way that will automatically produce a desired result that violates Shabbos. Completing a circuit to turn on a light is a violation of Shabbos. By activated the sensor, one automatically produced the desired result of turning on the light.

There is leeway when the result is not automatic or when the result is not desired.

I am all for striving to keep halacha. When I am met with a choice between what I want and what halacha demands I try my best to choose halacha. So for example, if I am driving late at night and I pull into a rest stop and they have a fast food joint serving burgers that are not kosher I have a choice. I want a burger but halacha demands that my burgers be kosher. I choose to leave the rest stop burgerless. I will not sue the restaurant for not providing kosher burgers. Right?

Now, I know this is a little different from the vacation home. But, it is the same principle. If halacha will not allow for me act a certain way, guess what? I am not going to act that way. Even if I really, really, really want to. So, I know that in the vacation home there are other factors, such as broken promises and flawed reasoning. However, if it were me, or anyone that I advise I would trade that place for a new one.

Adhering to halacha is about making a choice to allow halacha to control your life and not your whims and desires at any given moment. There will be times where the choice is hard or the alternative is very tempting, those are the times where you show your strength of character by making what you believe to be the right choice. Those are not the times to sue because you have been made uncomfortable in your adherence to halacha.

There may be great merit to the lawsuit. I find that all irrelevant. I think, avoiding a legal brouhaha over halacha is more important than the principle of who is right and who is wrong in this situation.

Second, the offensive headline that originally appeared on Gizmodo bothered me. I am NOT an overly sensitive person. I do not cry “Anti-Semitism at every opportunity I get (ala Uncle Leo). I don’t even call this “Anti-Semitism”, I call this insensitivity.

There is nothing against Jewish people, per se, when calling religion a superstition. But there is a tremendous breach of sensitivity.

Gizmodo writer, Jack Lofton doesn’t believe in religion in general and that’s okay. I am not going to call him names about his lack of faith or question his theology publicly. That is just not appropriate for a gadget blog. If he were writing on a religion blog, or even an anti-religion blog then Jack’s opinion about religion might be relevant. Here, it was not and inserting his bigoted opinion was insensitive.

I do not read the headline as an affront to Judaism or even religion in general. I read the headline as an affront to civility.

We live in a big world, with a lot of people. Not everyone is going to agree. You can try and convince everyone you are right or lash out against those who do not. But ultimately, we are not all going to agree. So let agree on this, let’s choose not to fight about our disagreements and otherwise be friends. I mantioned this revolutionary concept on this blog a little while ago. We have more in common than not. Let’s stop fighting about God, or anything else we feel strongly about and move on.

Also, Jack, Gizmodo is the wrong place to make your point about religion.

Time and place, Jack. Showing your prejudice against religion is ugly, it is especially ugly when it is not at all connected to the content of your post. I read Gizmodo for technology news and content. Just because you have a soapbox does not mean you can shout whatever you want whenever you want. Time and place.

Jack, please don’t make fun of other people’s beliefs on one of my favorite gadget blogs. Thanks.

Update: To his credit, the writer apologized.

Related posts:

1. Pacific Jewish Center on Gizmodo.com (well, not really)
2. Orthodox Jews and E-Readers
3. Dr. Laura Quits: I Think It's A Shame (and some belated commentary on Helen Thomas)
4. A Jewish Black Woman's "Henry Gates" Situation
5. KCET Visits PJC and Interviews Me

Yesterday was my birthday.

I am not huge “birthday guy”. I love my children’s birthday more than my own birthday and my mother loves my birthday more than I do.

A lot of people know my birthday. Co-workers, family and friends all know my birthday. This year I got a ton of birthday wishes.

But it was different.

One summer when I was in sleepaway camp on my birthday I got like 250 “in person” birthday wishes. The guy who made the breakfast anouncements said “the 100th person who wishes Eliyahu Fink a Happy Birthday gets a free soda”. Everyone wanted a free soda so throughout the day random kids were wishing me Happy Birthday. I like that. It felt good to be acknowledged (birthday or not…).

This year, I was not in sleepaway camp and there were no contests.

I got 7 in person happy birthdays.

I got 2 phonecall happy birthdays.

I got 8 Twitter timeline happy birthdays.

I got 3 Twitter direct message happy birthdays.

I got 2 SMS Text happy birthdays.

I got 39 Facebook happy birthdays.

Notice a trend?

Yes, technology contributed tremendously to my birthday wishes.

I don’t have any major commentary about this, I just think it is notable. Social networking plays such an important role in our 2009 lives. It is not going to change so if you are not yet on Twitter or Facebook or leaving comments on blogs, you are a little behind the curve.

That’s okay. I am not saying we all need to be ahead of the curve. What I am saying is our world is trending into a more digital era.

Be ready!

Related posts:

1. Happy Birthday Tetris
2. Betty’s 106th Birthday Party (and my 500th post)
3. Wake Up Happy and Try to Stay Happy
4. Your Unique Voice and A Kafkaesque Experience
5. Happy 160th Birthday to the New York Times

During the summer months many people find some extra time to catch up on their reading. By reading, I mean books with paper, ink, covers and turning pages. I don’t mean on a backlit display plugged into an electrical outlet.

This summer, I have been too busy to do any real substantive offline reading. I have done a lot of online reading, but my book reading has fallen behind.

One exception has been DovBear on the Parsha, and you can read my review here.

Part of the reason for this is that in my “spare time” I usually end up reading up on Law School materials. I actually enjoy reading cases and Law Review articles, so my reading of other stuff has fallen a bit behind.

There is plenty of summer left and I thought it would be nice to provide some of my all time favorite reads and a quick note about why I like each book.

Click the title of the book to purchase on Amazon.

Please feel free to add your favorites, especially if you see my faves and think I would like your suggestions.

Jewish Books

The Committed Life by Esther Jungreis

Written for Observant Jews and anyone else, the quintessential Rebbetzin Jungreis weaves together stories of commitment and dedication to life, love and spirituality. I confess to crying throughout the book and if you have an emotional side, this book will speak to you.

Letters to a Buddhist Jew by Akiva Tatz

What the Angel Taught You by Rabbi Noach Weinberg and Yaakov Salomon

A book of Reb Noach Weinberg’s wisdom on life, happiness and achieving one’s goals. The book is humorous, thoughtful and practical.

Frameworks by Rabbi Matis Weinberg

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman

A (slowly becoming outdated, but continually being updated) analysis of the rise of the information age. From the first personal computers to blogging, the book puts all the advances of the last two decades into a neat package. I found the book to be very important to understanding our era as a participant and as a parent!

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich

Related posts:

1. Book Review | Strictly Kosher Reading
2. Rational Reading and Gift List
3. Book Review | The Queen You Thought You Knew
4. Book Review | The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook
5. Do You Like Reading Blogs?

This post has been cross-posted to DovBear. – more discussion there.

Social Networking has been around for a long time. The term is nearly two centuries old and the concept perhaps 30 times that.

With the internet explosion around the new millennium social networking became all the rage on the world wide web. MySpace and others blazed the trail. Now, blogging, Facebook and Twitter are an integral part of our social landscape.

Naturally, I was drawn to these new age ways of using technology to create social networks. I’ve been on Facebook since its inception five years ago and joined Twitter a while ago and have only recently begun to blog.

Over the last few weeks some incredible things have happened that are direct results of social networking online.

A couple of weeks ago a lovely woman came to our Shul on the Beach for Shabbos morning services. At the Kiddush (where incredibly, we do not have Kugel) she approached me and introduced herself as “Rena, I follow you on Twitter”. Immediately I realized it was @Tinsbar from Baltimore. Rena was in LA for a few days and decided to come check out our Shul. Rena enjoyed her time spent at PJC and we enjoyed her company. In fact one community member even got some footwear recommendations from Rena!

Related posts:

1. Elul Begins With A Warning | Anonymous Bloggers Take Note: Google Knows Your Every Move
2. Why Blogging Is Good
3. Jewish Blog Round-Up July 5th 2009 Edition
4. Today's Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us
5. Malcolm Gladwell Doesn’t Use Twitter or Facebook But He Is Pretty Sure They Are Useless

Yesterday I flew cross country. Our route: LAX —> JFK.

Something profound happened aboard that aircraft and that is the point behind this post.

While cruising at 30,000 feet we witnessed an amazing sight.

Our son Rami, saw it first. Looking out the window he saw giant flashes of white. The flashes were streaking across the evening sky. As we were above the clouds, the flashes were reflected off the clouds making for quite a light show.

We were witnessing a lightning storm. At 30,000 feet the lightning is pure. Unblocked by trees and buildings, we were able to watch the lightning for a little while and it was truly spectacular. We had front row seats to an inspiring show of natural beauty.

I looked around and found a video that depicts a similar “show” to what we were treated to. I think ours was even better.

As an observant Jew, I believe these natural beauties are placed into our natural world by God. It is inspiring to see such beauty up close. Observing such spectacular natural wonders reaffirms my belief in an all-powerful and good God.

As I was contemplating this very idea, I remembered something I heard from my Rebbe.

It is one thing to see Godliness in natural beauty. The rational behind this is that God placed the tools in the universe that can manifest as a spectacular lightning storm or grandiose waterfall or a Grand Canyon or a sparkling shooting star. Additionally, every moment of the universe’s existence is willed by God so it is easy to “give God the credit” for natural beauty.

I am a huge fan of the “Planet Earth” series for this reason. When we see the natural beauty that exists in our world we are inspired.

My Rebbe says that it is even more incredible when we see Godliness in Man’s accomplishments. If we can walk past a skyscraper or beautiful display of artwork and see Godliness that is even more impressive.

Meaning, the fact that man has the ability to do such impressive things can also be attributed to God. It was God who gave Man the ability to produce such amazing results.

Therefore, when we see a “man made” creation and we can be inspired to see Godliness we are on a higher level of understanding and reality than when we see Godliness in natural beauty.

As this thought crossed my mind I realized how remarkable it is to fly in an airplane. A capsule the size of a skyscraper hurtling through the air at high speeds, transporting hundreds of people, on a system that can bring people to an incredible amount of different destinations.

Yes, we do have pet peeves about flying (more on that another time) but that should not take away from our appreciation for the advanced technology and innovation necessary for airplane travel.

As I was seeing a natural phenomena that blew my mind I was sitting in an airplane whose technology blows my mind as well.

That was an eye opening trip.

Related posts:

1. Solar Eclipse In Judaism
2. The Year in Review
3. Family Outing to Huntington Gardens
4. Earth Day and Torah
5. Beautiful Solar Eclipse Video (and a moron)

This blog post is about men learning at work. By learning, I mean studying Torah.

I taught a class today at Teichman Enterprises.

It was a really great experience and I was inspired and I want to share my feelings with you.

If you are looking for the Australian musical artists known as Men at Work who sing that great song called “Down Under” (the one the “Piamentas” ripped off and sing to the words “Asher Bara”) click here for Men at Work.

If you don’t know what I am talking about watch these two videos…

Okay – got that? Now Watch this:

But I digress.

Back to our previously scheduled blog post.

I heard from my Rebbe that he is often approached by men who work long hours and feel as if they are spiritually drowning because they have such limited time to work on their spirituality.

His advice was  that once a day, while at work we should contemplate on the reasons we are working. We are working to support a family, a wife, children, to provide the opportunity for them to grow Jewishly, so that we can send our children to expensive Jewish schools and so we can give charity, and so that we can experience a beautiful Shabbos together and if we are able to focus on that for just a moment it can make a tremendous difference in our work. Literally transforming our mundane job into a spiritual activity.

Truly, this is a beautiful idea.

Today I witnessed and participated in an equal if not better solution.

Teichman Enterprises has a weekly Torah class in their office. A catered lunch and a Rabbi teaching Torah is sure to insert some spirituality into a mundane work week. It is the perfect way to integrate the spiritual with the more mundane.

I was privileged to teach the class today and I was inspired. The attendees were attentive, interested and thoughtful.

It is impressive that so many people were willing to take time off from work to come hear words of Torah.

Notable among the attendees was Meish Wilson from Venice and the Pacific Jewish Center.

Today we learned about the special silver trumpets that were blasted before many moments in Jewish life. We learned about the root of sin and the path to recovery from sin as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope the attendees did as well.

(One correction, I mention R’ Yehuda HaLevi in the class, in fact it was R’ Shlomo Alkabetz, my error and I apologize.)

Today was a big day for iPhone owners and before the class we talked about the marvels of the iPhone over lunch. Thanks to the magic of the iPhone (and an app called iTalk) you can listen to the class on your computer right now!

Click below to listen.

Enjoy the class. (35 minutes)

Related posts:

1. Law School and Learning Ethics
2. Messilas Yesharim 01/04/09
3. Active Learning
4. Learning to be Human | A Guest Post
5. Essay: What is Teshuva (repentance) and How Does It Work in Judaism?

June 6th. An auspicious date in history.

For most it a day known as D-Day. The day the Allies invaded Normandy.

I have the greatest respect and appreciation for the massive Ally effort to maintain freedom in our world. Thank you.

If you want to see more about that click here.

For others, it is also T-Day. What is T-Day? Nothing, I just made it up.

But it is the birthday of perhaps the greatest video game of all time.

Tetris.

Would you believe that Tetris is 25 years old today?

Yes. 25 years ago, a Soviet scientist named Alexey Pajitnov invented what has since become an international phenomena.

Everyone knows about Tetris and everyone has played Tetris. This is by no means scientific, I merely think this is the case… and if you have not played yet, read on.

The most famous version of Tetris came packaged with the original Nintendo Game Boy. That version iconic music is the only music that I accept as Tetris music.

The tune was even made into a dance music hit. I kid you not. Check it out.

If you want to play the original Tetris on your computer you can play right now by clicking here.

Incredible!

Anyway, this is slightly Jewish related as well.

The original Tetris music as seen above is a Russian folk song. I have some Jewish Russian friends and they sing a Jewish children’s song to the same tune.

I remember when I heard that for the first time I thought that was pretty cool.

Happy Birthday Tetris.

Happy playing to the rest of us.

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Last week, Facebook disabled my account. No explanation, no reason, no apology, just gone.

There are terms that each member of Facebook agrees to abide by and I have not violated any of those terms. I have emailed Facebook asking for an explanation or at the very least an acknowledgement that my account has been disabled. So far… nothing.

If you are so inclined, send Facebook an email on my behalf requesting they reinstate my account.

It is incredible how I have come to rely on Facebook as a means to maintaining relationships. I have become accustomed to knowing how my friends and family are doing by reading their Facebook posts. Now I wonder what they are up to…?

Perhaps more profoundly, I have become accustomed to others knowing about my life. Incredibly, I somehow think that others may want to read what I find interesting and listen to my thoughts on current events and social commentary. Now, without Facebook, I feel like a radio show host with no microphone. My voice has been silenced and I do not like it one bit.

Facebook is a social networking site. I think that is a misnomer. Aside from providing networking, Facebook provides a platform. For now, I am without it.

The entire experience has been Kafkaesque and it feels strange to be stripped of your online identity. Thankfully, I have spread my voice out among a few channels. I am on Twitter. What is Twitter? Sign up and you will find out it is like Facebook but just the status updates. So there are no applications, groups or photo albums but there is much more updating. I recommend it for anyone in school or business. Follow my updates by clicking here.

Then there is this blog. I write, but does anyone read? Yes, there are some readers. Would I want more people to read and interact on the blog? Yes. So, if you enjoy the blog, spread the word and link to the blog on your Facebook account or your own blog.

I am happy to reciprocate if I find your content worthwhile.

It is clear, that we all need to be heard. In the 21st century we all have the opportunity to be heard, the harder thing is to filter the noise and find the music you want to hear.

This reminds me of a great Jewish idea. The Jewish people adhere to the precepts of the Torah. We all study Torah and we all find Its depth infinite. As infinite as the Torah is, every single person whe studies the Torah has an opportunity to create a novel idea in the Torah. This is called a Chiddush. Our tradition teaches us that each person can and does create one or several Chiddush thoughts in their lifetime. This is their idea and would have not been heard without that person’s thought.

Each person brings their personality, personal history and world view to their study. Thus, each person can create their own Chiddush which is theirs and always will be theirs. The Torah provides infinite opportunities for everyone’s voice to be heard, to be unique and to be eternal.

The internet is incredible. It has given a voice to anyone who desires to be heard and more importantly, gives all of us the chance to hear those voices. If you like my voice, share it with others.

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I am sure you have noticed the new Tropicana Advertisements.

The ads are concurrent with their new branding and packaging. The ads are noted for their use of male figures (that is pretty rare…).

Now the ads are being pulled and the packaging is returning to the old packaging which we all remember and love.

Why am I blogging about this? (Personally I prefer grapefruit juice over orange juice.)

The reason this is blog material for me is the way that this redacation of the ad campaign was generated. Many people were upset (I can’t understand how packaging can do that, but that’s just me) abuot the new look cartons. Back in the day (circa 1998) if you had a problem with a corporation there was little that you could do to effectively make your voice heard.

That is no longer the case. The NY TImes article about Tropicana’s change of heart is very telling.

“You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something,” said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York.

“Now, every minute is a cocktail party,” he added. “You write an e-mail and in an hour, you’ve got a fan base agreeing with you.”

And then later , even more specific.

“Twitter is the ultimate focus group,” Mr. Shankman said. “I can post something and in a minute get feedback from 700 people around the world, giving me their real opinions.”

Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America in Chicago, part of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, acknowledged that consumers can communicate with marketers “more readily and more quickly” than ever. “For companies that put consumers at the center of what they do,” he said, “it’s a good thing.”

Thanks to this great thing called the internet everyone has a voice. Companies care about their social networking status. We can make a difference by voicing our opinions on the internet.

This is really what I blogged about last week . Technology has a great power to it that if used properly can change the world!

This is great right? Slow down for a second. This also means that it is so easy for idiots to destroy people and companies on the internet as well. Aha. So the internet is bad, right?

Wrong. Just like anything else in our world the internet is able to be used for good and bad. It is neither. There is nothing that is good or bad – there are only activities which define whether the “thing” is good or bad in a given situation.

Judaism holds that the world is full of tools. Those tools can be used for good or for bad. We make choices and those choices are what determines good and bad, not the actual tool. We have learned a lot about this is our Messilas Yesharim classes which you can find by clicking here.

The power is literally in your hands.And the internet is a great example of this idea.

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I love technology. My world is full of iPhones, digital cameras, blogs and Wii. There are a lot of people who adhere to a stricter Jewish lifestyle than mine. Their world is without these toys. The main objection to these tech toys is the access they provide to content that could be dangerous to a spiritual lifestyle. Therefore as a general rule there is a resistance to any device which has internet access. As we all know there is no limit to the dangers of the internet…

In Israel there is a strong market for products that have their web access disabled. These products are usually preceded by the word “Kosher” like Kosher Phones. The word kosher is commonly used in reference to foods that an observant Jew knows are fit for consumption in accordance with the Jewish dietary laws. I spoke about this in detail at a Connections a few weeks back. I recommend checking that out.

One of my earliest posts on the blog discussed the kosher vending machines popping up in the New York area. They are programmed to turn off on Shabbos to prevent any profits on Shabbos which adheres to the restriction of conducting business on Shabbos. I noted the proliferation of comments on the blog which I was linking to that discussed the ideas and philosophies of Shabbos. It was quite interesting to me that on a mainstream gadget blog there was so much discussion about Shabbos.

It happened again. There was a post today about the Kosher GPS. A GPS navigation system that restricts internet access and has a database of kosher restaurants as well as many prayers and Psalms in the device. Kudos to MIO for producing such a great product!

Granted the linked blog has a very tongue-in-cheek tone to its posting but the comments are where the action is. Millions of people who never thought about the dangers of technology can gain new perspective from the blog and its comments. Not to mention all the good PR for those of us who are observant Jews. No we are not Amish. Yes we love progress. We are just careful how we use our resources.

Technology can be destructive but I guess this product illustrates the other side of the coin. Technology can and should be used for the right reasons. Like any single thing in our world – it can be used for good and bad. We have learned a lot about this in our Mesillas Yesharim class. In the spirit of this post I will be blogging about the good uses of technology over the next few days so stay tuned.

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The Amazing iPhone Siddur (iTunes link – will open iTunes) has impressed me from day 1. I was in my Camp Regesh office on Tisha B’Av talking to my friend / colleague Mo Kiss. I had just got my iPhone and he tells me about a friend of ours who does web development who had just finished coding a siddur for the iPhone. The application is impressive with the full range of Tefillos for all nuschaos and all the brachos you could ever need. The siddur knows when to add special sections for special days like Rosh Chodesh and the Torah reading for Moday and Thursday is automatically adjusted to the day’s reading. Additional it uses the built in GPS to find the nearest Minyan as well as all the pertinent zmanim such as sunrise, sunset, candle lighting times and havdala times. All these features are great and I purchased the application for these basic features. I use it and recommend it to friends. It is nothing short of ingenious.

What prompted this post is the latest feature the have added. There is now a section for each user to add their own “misheberach” list (prayer for sick people) and it pops into your iPhone siddur at the appropriate spots. This is a great addition on its own but the most beautiful thing that has been added is the fact that this list can be shared with all the other iPhone siddur users. This means that if you allow your list to be public then anyone with the application can also pray for the people on your list and you can pray for anyone on their lists. That is amazing. Now misheberach lists can be shared effortlessly across the world! We can all pray for complete strangers who are sick using their full Jewish name. What a tremendous service and idea this is! That is worth a blog post! I must say that this idea is incredible and I hope it is used across the board. Anyone who has an iPhone or iPod Touch should pay the $10 for the application and use it. Especially the misheberach list feature…

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